We're starting with an absolute classic, a book that is a gigantic best seller, and one of the first books we bought for my daughter when she was a tiny, tiny mite small enough to fold herself into our laps for a bedtime story.
"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle is the book we usually buy for folk who are having kids for the first time (if they don't already have a copy themselves), and still as entertaining and brilliant as it was when it first appeared back in 1969.
It's a hugely influential book, with the sort of sonorous gentle storytelling that works beautifully as a bedtime story, but enough surprises (including a cracking ending) and fun bits to keep a tiny tot (or a surly 12 year old) entertained.
The book opens with such a simple and restful scene before it gets down to the important business of introducing the many-legged multi-scoffing hero of the story, the caterpillar!
The section with the foods munched through by the caterpillar is beautifully done, those holes are a stroke of genius (as are the overlap pages) - Just big enough for toddler fingers to poke into (though we almost wish we'd bought the board book version of this, it might have lasted a bit more rigorous prodding by C when she was little).
Both my wife and I have many happy memories of reading this one to her when she was tiny, and it was demanded again, and again, and again. The book is obviously so well known - both as a book and as a brand (the range of merchandising that sprang up around this book around about the same time was we were buying baby things for C was incredible). To us it's part of where C's reading journey and love of books began all those years ago. We still giggle over the 'fat stomach-ache caterpillar' bit, and I still can't resist reading that bit in a slightly pained voice, just as I did 12 years ago (and yeah, it still makes her giggle though accompanied with a side order of eye-rolling!)
One strange thing - I realised that this book actually predated the blog, and for some reason we never actually reviewed it at all - so happy to feature it finally as one of our keepers, an absolute timeless classic we just can't bear to part with.
Original Review Link: N/A